Two-Faced, Three-Blade Art

The Two-Faced, Three-Blade Art hinged on one person having two faces—hiding a blade behind a smile and killing without a trace.

Behind him, the Cat-faced Zombie's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints, while its faceful of Corpse Hair stood on end in horror!

A perfectly ordinary person suddenly growing a face on the back of his head, then baring his teeth and grinning sinisterly at you—if such a thing happened even to a zombie like it, it would still feel downright uncanny!

The Cat-faced Corpse was clearly much smarter than the two zombies before it. The moment it saw Xu Qing smile, it immediately extended its sharp claws and slashed at the back of his neck.

Whether it succeeded or not, it would immediately retreat backward and pull away.

The Cat-faced Zombie's brain worked as quickly as its body reacted, but someone was even faster.

In the silent night, a streak of cold light flashed past.

It was like an epiphyllum blooming once, a startled glimpse of a swan—then vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Right after that, the Two-Faced youth who had drawn and sheathed his blade twisted his body, aiming the back of his head toward the mouth of the alley.

"Two faces and three blades—who can't do that?"

As his voice fell, the Cat-faced Zombie's razor-sharp claws, along with its head, finally dropped to the ground behind Xu Qing.

In the alley, the sinister man who had spoken of making peace while secretly harboring ill intentions completely broke down.

"This isn't the way of a Corpse Driver. Who exactly are you?"

He could hardly be blamed for feeling afraid. Corpse Drivers had always relied mainly on manipulating corpses. Once the zombies under their control failed to stop an enemy, the person manipulating them from behind the scenes would become meat on a chopping board, entirely at the other's mercy.

That was also why he refused to believe Xu Qing was merely a Corpse Driver.

After all, what Corpse Driver's zombies could possibly fight better than he could?

At the entrance of the alley, Xu Qing, who saw night as clearly as day, had already spotted the figure hidden within the secluded lane.

It was a middle-aged man wearing a long gown, with sunken eyes, a grayish-white complexion, and the appearance of someone attending a funeral.

Xu Qing's neck gave a series of clicking twists, and his two faces fused back into one.

He did not answer the man's question. Instead, he tightened the Vajra Knuckle Dusters on his hand and walked into the narrow alley at the same steady pace.

He wanted to let the other man experience what it meant to be beaten by society.

A few breaths later, Xu Qing dragged the barely breathing Corpse Driver up from the ground.

"I still have quite a few gold and silver treasures at my place. Good youngster, as long as you spare my life, I'll lead you there. All those valuables will be yours."

Xu Qing remained unmoved. He raised his fist indifferently, and the fierce strength stored within the Ironclad Corpse's body suddenly erupted.

The next moment, liquid slid from the Vajra Knuckle Dusters. He shook off the red and white matter, wiped them on the Corpse Driver's body after the man had stopped breathing for good, then hoisted today's unexpected spoils onto his shoulder and left the alley.

Aside from the fellow Corpse Driver he was carrying, three corpses of his zombie kind lay scattered nearby. Xu Qing now looked like an old farmer who had reaped a bumper harvest, loading all those bodies onto the handcart.

The upheaval had come abruptly and ended swiftly, like a sudden shower. By the time the clack of a Watchman's rattle sounded in the distance, Xu Qing had already pushed the handcart onward again.

Recently, Linhe Fang had been plagued by one disturbance after another. It was not only because of the refugees arriving from elsewhere; there were also Jianghu figures from all sorts of schools and factions, as well as forces of unclear intent, carrying out shadowy deeds.

As Xu Qing made his way along, he discovered that there were clearly far more soldiers patrolling the streets at night than usual.

Many times, dealing with officials was harder than dealing with ghosts.

Fortunately, his five senses were sharp, and his Qi Gazing Technique could detect in advance the vigorous Human Vitality of groups of night patrol soldiers moving through the streets, so he avoided any direct contact with them.

After pushing the handcart into the newly purchased residence, Xu Qing had only just stepped through the gate when a rich, cool aura of sinister earth swept over his face. He instinctively inhaled the distinctive scent of the haunted house, and immediately felt every pore across his body relax.

After shutting the courtyard gate and unloading the goods, more than a dozen corpses were lined up in the pitch-black courtyard.

When the dark clouds dispersed and the moon revealed half its face, illuminating the haunted residence, it not only failed to dispel the sinister air but instead made the entire courtyard seem even more cold, silent, and gloomy.

Aside from the useless corpses left over from the Corpse Driver's Shop, there were also four fresh corpses that had never been given passage beyond this world.

With no one to disturb him in the courtyard, it was far safer than lingering in the streets and alleys. Xu Qing looked at the four fresh corpses on the ground, which were entirely at his mercy, like a flower thief who had broken into a young lady's boudoir, his eyes faintly glowing green.

Rubbing his hands excitedly, he was filled with anticipation after the harvest. In his eyes, all these corpses could yield rewards from the Duren Sutra. Never mind four—even forty corpses would not faze him at all.

And so, in the already gloomy, inhuman haunted residence, there was now another underworld oddity with a 'corpse obsession,' bringing all sorts of corpses home every day.

Within the residence, a sea of desire surged and sank as the Duren Sutra turned its pages.

The life stories of several corpses surfaced before Xu Qing's eyes like slides in a projector.

Inside and out, they were nothing more than the treachery of human hearts, the sinister schemes of ghosts, and the entanglements of kindness, evil, gratitude, and vengeance.

What interested him most was still the life story of the Corpse Driver.

The Corpse Driver's original name was Shi Jiulu. He had been an utterly ordinary Corpse Driver, but while transporting corpses to Nancuo, he happened to encounter people from the Zongwu Prefecture of Shu Land conscripting Prefectural Guards.

Shi Jiulu had been unable to resist. Helplessly conscripted into the Zhoushan army, he became a common soldier resisting the invasion of the Nancuo Kingdom.

During that period, a military officer learned that he was a Corpse Driver from the shadowy trades and sent him to a special military camp for training.

This military camp had a special designation: the "Dao Soldiers."

In Shu Land, only three families could command Dao Soldiers on a large scale. Aside from the Zongwu Prefecture, the Dao Soldier Yin Family and the Gongsun Family were the most renowned.

But that fame was limited to the battlefield.

Shi Jiulu spent six years in the army, four of them cultivating the method of raising and nurturing Corpse Soldiers in the Dao Soldier camp.

The Yin Family excelled at the Four Symbols Soldiers, the Gongsun Family excelled at the Ghost Beast Soldiers, while the Zongwu Prefecture happened to specialize in controlling Corpse Soldiers!

When Xu Qing saw this, he felt his entire understanding of the world refreshed once again.

He had originally thought that refining the dead into corpse laborers and making them push millstones and dig mines all day was already the height of inhumanity. He had never expected an even greater blessing to await them afterward!

Xu Qing tried to use Shi Jiulu's life-flashback to witness the scene of Corpse Soldiers charging into battle and clashing with the enemy, but he never expected that Shi Jiulu had only just reached the front lines. Before he could even see a trace of Nancuo's witch soldiers, he joined several other Corpse Drivers who had likewise been seized for labor service and slipped into the deep mountains. Afterward, they wandered from place to place until they reached the lands of Jinmen.

He had thought the man was an experienced veteran. Who would have guessed he was actually a deserter who had fled before the battle?

Xu Qing continued reading.

After Shi Jiulu and the others arrived in Linhe, they resumed their old trade, relying on transporting and refining corpses to earn the capital needed to establish themselves.

However, Shi Jiulu was sly by nature. When he saw that transporting and refining corpses could not make much money, he conceived the wicked idea of controlling Corpse Soldiers to murder and rob.

His first target was Xu Qing, who was wealthy and overbearing, had been 'driving up corpse prices,' and had bought up all the unclaimed corpses from the government offices.

By the time Xu Qing saw this, he knew that tonight's trouble had only just begun. It was not yet time for it to end!

When Shi Jiulu was dying, he had tempted Xu Qing with promises of gold, silver, and treasure, saying that he would lead him to his hideout to collect the wealth and avert disaster.

But after seeing the man's memories, Xu Qing knew that giving up his wealth to preserve his life was only a pretense. His real goal had been to lure Xu Qing deep into the thieves' den!

Because at the place Shi Jiulu had mentioned, two other Corpse Drivers were still staying there!

Xu Qing's eyes flickered, but in the end he suppressed all his thoughts and looked toward the harvest this time.

Of the four corpses, three were Human Grade Low. Only Shi Jiulu's corpse had reached Human-grade High-quality.

As for the Duren Sutra's rewards, there was a method for raising Corpse Soldiers, a White Seal Soldier Token for controlling Dao Soldiers, and some ordinary skills obtained from the other three zombies, such as chopping firewood and building stoves, punting boats and ferrying people, and throwing and rolling dice. They were all minor skills related to everyday life.